This article is the third in a series of articles that discuss the importance of privacy and data security considerations in the transactional context.
In any transaction in which an entity invests in or acquires another business or its assets, the investing or acquiring entity (the “Acquiror”) should fully evaluate its counterparty (the “Company”), the Company’s assets, and the Company’s liabilities and risks prior to the consummation of the transaction. A spate of significant data security incidents and exposés in the past few years has raised awareness across industries of the need to adequately contemplate privacy concerns and appropriately secure data systems. Businesses, acquirors, and investors increasingly understand that expensive data security incidents, lawsuits, and government investigations can result from basic failures to comply with applicable privacy laws or data processing contracts or, with regard to information security, well-established industry best practices.
Continue Reading Privacy and Data Security Due Diligence
On September 17, 2015, California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced a $33 million settlement with Comcast Corp. to resolve an investigation into Comcast’s publishing of phone numbers that consumers had paid the company not to publish.